1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the art of electronic digital computers, and more specifically to a user-friendly iconic message display indicating the progress and status of loading and running a system program in an electronic digital computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer system programs which include an operating system per se, system service modules, service "daemons" and other modules are generally "message-rich" in that they generate a large number of status messages while the system program is being loaded and run. These messages are displayed on the screen of a video monitor as text.
Most of these messages contain numerical data or other highly technical information which is not useful or relevant to a typical user. Even if the information were relevant, the messages are displayed too briefly for a user to comprehend or benefit from them.
Generally, these messages will be of two types: progress advisories which indicate the progress of loading the system program, and technical advisories which include audit data for possible use by service personnel and warnings that a partial or total failure has occurred. An exemplary progress advisory message might be "MSDEX.DRV LOADED AT 0x4F895C3D", whereas a technical advisory indicating a failure might be "ERROR 17F6 AT 0x8B2976A9".
The purpose of the progress advisory messages is presumably to advise a user of the status and progress of loading the system program, whereas the purpose of the technical advisory messages relating to failures is to inform a user as to which module of the system failed and the type of failure. However, these messages fail to achieve their intended purpose because the "language" in which they are presented is unintelligible to a typical user.